Badminton England ‘staggered’ by UK Sport appeal decision
by Matthew Campelli | 20 Feb 2017
Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis won an unexpected bronze medal at Rio 2016
UK Sport has rejected representations made by six Olympic sports for Tokyo 2020 funding – a decision labeled “staggering” by Badminton England.
The national governing body was among the unsuccessful group, which included Archery GB, British Fencing, Goalball UK, Table Tennis England and Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby.
The elite sport quango’s decision means that none of the sports will receive government or National Lottery funding over the 2017-2021 Tokyo investment cycle.
If the organisations believe the decision to be unjust, they may launch a formal appeal via Sports Resolutions UK.
Liz Nicholl, the chief executive of UK Sport, said that none of the sports that made representations were able to “provide any critically compelling new evidence” that changed the assessment of medal potential.
Under UK Sport’s ‘no compromise’ approach, sports that have been deemed to have a good chance of medalling at the Olympics will receive all the financial resources.
However, a statement made by Badminton England shortly after the announcement said the governing body was “staggered”.
“Given the strength of evidence we were able to present to justify investment, we cannot believe UK Sport has concluded that they should stand by their decision and award zero funding to our GB programme,” said the strongly-worded statement.
“We have players who are on track to win medals for the nation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and our belief in those players remains as great as it’s ever been.”
Just before Christmas, UK Sport revealed that the sport would lose its elite performance funding despite Team GB pair Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge winning an unexpected bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
UK Sport did reverse one decisions: British Weightlifting will now be able to manage the investment it was granted for its World Class Programme for Powerlifting.
The money was originally distributed to the English Institute of Sport to manage.
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FEATURE: People profiles – Adrian Christy
UK Sport has rejected representations made by six Olympic sports for Tokyo 2020 funding – a decision labeled “staggering” by Badminton England. The national governing body was among the unsuccessful group, which included Archery GB, British Fencing, Goalball UK, Table Tennis England and Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby. The elite sport quango’s decision means that none of the sports will receive government or National Lottery funding over the 2017-2021 Tokyo investment
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